All in all it was a great cruise...
History was made when tropical storm Pablo became hurricane Pablo, (the most eastern hurricane to form in the north Atlantic) The Getaway was right in the middle of it with winds over 100 knots.. The bridge turned the ship head into the storm and slowed to 14 knots, most folks slept thru it.. I however was intrigued and experienced it from our balcony cabin.. The Getaway took this storm in stride...
However these large ships are the worst for tendering (great stirrup caye) and any interaction with Miami has always been disappointing with these large ships.. NCL is building a new terminal in Miami, will it be better, or will it be a huge waste of money??? 2020 will tell us..(Copenhagen does a great job handling these large ships, can Miami learn???)
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Copenhagen continues to be a model of handling embarkation on these large ships (too bad Miami and Manhattan do not)
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Specialty restaurants continue to be top notch. Savor and Taste did a good job.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Burn the floor great as always, Cirque Dreams and steam a good show as usual. The 1st 1/2 of the Levity comedians were better than the 2nd 1/2
Children's Programs
no kids, only 10 onboard.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Personal preference item.. the Atirum is used (by design) as the center of most (high noise) activities.. Therefore the normal quiet places like O'Sheehans and the "lobby", are anything but quiet.
I feel for anyone trying to have a conversation with customer service, cruise next, shore excursion and the internet manager.
By design the theater is TOO small and unavailable for some events.. Being small reservations are needed for "popular" shows, and some shows only have standing room.. therefore some shows are missed.
Headliners is also too small for the popular comedians, and lacks comfortable seating.. maybe this is NCL's way of limiting crowd size.
The crew did their best, in that the public areas were kept clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Roomy enough, good layout, bed near the balcony door.close to the elevator, nice triangle shaped balcony, almost exactly the middle of the ship.. very important in the north Atlantic in November. The bathroom work flawlessly, as if it was brand new.
Some balcony doors have a slight whistle, ours seemed like a new door no noise even when 70 knot winds were encountered. That said when hurricane Pablo hit (over 100 knot winds) we could hear the wind noise (not a whistle) when the wind died to
Ship tip
The smaller ships are quieter and better for "empty nesters" This ship handled hurricane Pablo in stride. The (deck 8) waterfront is a nice hangout area. If you have kids there is plenty for them to do.. this cruise ( a 19 day T/A) there were only 10 kids,
The island is getting better, however tendering on this size ship is miserable, specifically some folks could not get to the island before the "cookouts" closed @ 2 PM, all aboard was 5 pm. NCL failed this one.
Miami never fails to disappoint me.. it is one of the worst experiences for this large a ship. We planned on staying aboard and avoiding this mess, however all passengers had to leave the ship and go thru customs / immigration, none were allowed to return untill all passengers were off the ship...this was a mess, as the terminal CANNOT adequately handle 4000 passengers waiting to re-board. to make maters worse, the Getaway closed it's (lunchtime) dining facilities before all passengers were able to reboard.. BIG FAIL #2 on this cruise NCL
N.O. cruise terminal struggled getting us off the ship efficiently, especially considering the customs / immigration had already occurred in Miami. The facility just isn't big enough for 4000+ passengers.. However N.O., is a great port to visit and stay a few days (which we did).
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