Only did one previous cruise which was on the Gem last year during the 50% capacity days. Having been spoiled by the level of service on a ship with maybe 1000 people on board combined with the recent negative reviews about a lot of Norwegian sailings I tempered my expectations back a bit heading into this one. I have to say that I ended up being very pleasantly surprised. The overall quality of service and experience that we had on this cruise wasn’t really that much noticeably less than what we had last year. You could see where some small changes had been made and things didn’t run quite as smoothly this time around with multiple port time changes over a series of a few days but nothing that I considered to be serious enough to worry about. We also cruised with three other people who were cruising NCL for the first time and all have already booked future NCL cruises or got CruiseNext certificates while on board. We’ll certainly be back as well. 250 days until the next one.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Had check-in between 9 and 9:30. Took about 20 minutes to be sitting in a seat waiting for boarding. Very quick and painless.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Regularly ate at O’Sheehan’s, Taste/Savor/Tropicana Room and the buffet. Specialty meals at Teppanyaki and Moderno.
Never had to wait more than a few minutes to be seated at any of the venues we ate at. Aside from a couple occasions the wait staff we had did a good or great job.
The buffet food was hit-or-miss as far as temperature goes, but that’s the nature of any buffet. All our made-to-order meals were served hot and within the expected time frame.
Savor Restaurant
5 out of 5
Savor/Taste same thing so I’m reviewing both here. Never went for breakfast. Had lunch there several times. Great choice for a place to eat on embarkation day instead of the buffet as it was very quiet and not packed. Lunch menu rotated daily so always something different to try. Only open from 12:00-1:30 for lunch so service was usually very quick as they’re probably trying to fit two 45 minute seatings into each table during that time. Food always came out hot and never a wait for a seat. If one restaurant is busy just go across the hall to the other one. Only had dinner here once but it’s the same menu as the Tropicana Room as well. Taste/Savour are a much quieter and more intimate main dining experience than Tropicana is if that’s your preference. Service time is similar across all three so expect an hour and a half or so to finish the whole meal.
The Tropicana Room (Main Dining Room)
4 out of 5
Had dinner here several nights. We never had any problem being seated right away but I know there was often a line if you didn’t time it right. Fills up fairly quickly and expect a meal time between one and a half to two hours. If you get there when they open at 5 you’ll get a seat right away. If you get there at 6 you’ll probably have to wait at least half an hour to be seated. 6:30-7 you’ll probably be seated quickly. 7:30 there could be a wait again. Had a bad waiter one night that made several mistakes and got everything out to us much slower than any other waiters did. It’s essentially just one big open room jammed full of tables so it’s loud and things feel crowded and hectic as you see the wait staff just constantly moving the whole night. Add in live music or show from the Burn the Floor dancers and that just makes it louder. Food was always good and service was usually good but I preferred the quieter intimacy of Taste/Savor much more.
O'Sheehan's Neighborhood Bar and Grille
5 out of 5
Ate here many times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My preferred breakfast location as it was never very busy and your food was usually on your table hot and fresh within about 10 minutes. Lunch and dinner was just the same regular menu that never changed, so not a lot of variety if you like to try something different for every meal. Once again there was never any wait for a table and service was quick. If you want a sit down meal where you can be in and out in 30-45 minutes O’Sheehan’s is the best choice any time of day.
Garden Café
4 out of 5
Very large buffet with lots of variety and a few nightly changes. Very crowded during peak meal times. Crew behind the counter were helpful if you had any questions about any of the food items. Staff working the floor was usually quick to clear empty plates. It’s a buffet so you’re not going to get fine dining or really fresh and hot food, but you shouldn’t be expecting that. It’s good for what it is.
Teppanyaki
5 out of 5
First time ever at a Japanese hibachi restaurant, so while I knew what to expect it was still a new experience. Food is guaranteed to be hot and freshly made since it’s cooked right in front of you. Just a fun show with plenty of really good food.
Moderno Churrascaria
5 out of 5
Huge fan of Brazilian steakhouses and never found a bad one. Their meat selections have been scaled back a bit from what their menu had last year, but there’s still a good variety and the main meats and pineapple you’d expect at a Brazilian steakhouse are still here. I’ve also heard rumours that they have a salad bar, but I didn’t care to confirm if that was true. It’s all about the meat.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Freestyle Daily was packed full each day with different activities but when you really looked at it the variety could be lacking at times. Lots of trivia, sales pitches, NCL promotional material, origami and usually a bigger event/game show each day. Main issue is that for the bigger events is that the atrium is a horrible venue for a crowd. Not enough seats and makes it hard for anyone just looking to walk through that area or visit guest services during that time. The theatre is barely used during the day and just feels like it would work better for a lot of these things. Even Spice H2O would make more sense.
Otherwise the majority of on board activities are still free to use on this ship unlike the newer ones, so that’s nice.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Saw both Burn the Floor and Million Dollar Quartet along with the Burn the Floor show during dinner at Tropicana. All the performers are obviously very talented and put on a good show.
Burn the Floor is strictly dancing with live percussion and singing. No plot or speaking roles to tie anything together but at 50 or so minutes long it’s not too long to overstay its welcome. Shout out to the percussion guy at the back running around all show playing what seemed like 40 different instruments. I watched him more than anyone.
Million Dollar Quartet was the more traditional Broadway show with music and singing and a bit of a plot and acting to bring it all together. A longer show at roughly 1:45 but it kept moving at a brisk pace and never really dragged too much.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Not much to complain about here beyond a few specific examples. The crew as a whole was quick to greet you as you walked past, especially in the morning. Didn’t see very many unhappy looking faces. The wait staff at all restaurants was great and never seemed to stop moving. Watching them in the Tropicana Room especially was almost like a show in itself.
Our room steward Gede was great. Introduced himself the first sea day and always greeted us by name with a smile on his face. Our shower wasn’t draining properly and after letting him know there was a maintenance person at our door within 5 minutes to fix it. Gede followed up the next day to make sure the problem was fixed. When we didn’t get a laundry bag with the $29 promo he immediately went and got us one. We also got a few unexpected towel animals that he had fun posing around our room. He genuinely seemed to care about making sure he could do all he could to make sure our vacation was great.
We did have a couple waiters who were less than great. One was very slow and made several mistakes. Another really looked like he’d rather be anywhere else at that moment.
We did have 3 days where, for whatever reason Gede was replaced by another steward. He was horrible. Our room didn’t get made up at all two of those 3 days. During that time we ran out of toilet paper and had to call to get somebody to drop some of in our room. One time he did come to our room we were in it with the makeup room light on planning to go out when he came to makeup the room. Instead he reached in and turned on our do not disturb light and told us to have that on if we’re in the room and just left before we could say anything. Very happy when we saw Gede back and our room was cleaned again.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Constantly people going around cleaning especially in the stairwells. I think they must have cleaned every square inch of anything in the stairwells. The ceilings, the floor boards, the underside of the stairs, the mirrors were all things I saw them specifically cleaning at various times. Hand railings were cleaned with flashlights so they could get every last fingerprint. Kind of made me feel bad to use the stairs after all the effort they put in.
Ship layout isn’t bad. Once you get the feel for it everything makes sense. Unless you go up the aft elevator/stairs Spice H2O is kind of hidden away and very easy to miss. Having previously sailed on the Gem I really missed anything resembling the Spinnaker Lounge on board. It was a much better event venue than the atrium was and also made for a quiet observation lounges at various times of day. It also provided front facing views. For people unwilling to spring for Vibe or the Haven the Getaway has nowhere even close to front facing anywhere else on the ship. Kind of a bummer. I will say that for a ship with close to 4000 people on board it rarely ever felt crowded.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
An standard inside cabin. A bit more spacious than we were expecting. Plenty of room for two and we never felt crowded. Great location as it was a small hall at the end of the elevator lobby. So close to the elevator/stairs without being able to hear noise from them and just a small side hall so there weren’t many people that ever needed to walk past our room at all.
Ship tip
Book what you can in advance and go to the main dining rooms either right when they open or maybe after 8 or so to avoid lineups.
Nice island but obviously very Americanized. Also the only port we visited where it was just unbearably hot. We went to Coral World for our excursion. 20-30 minute drive to get there during which our driver said nothing so we learned nothing about the island. Coral World was a small aquarium but it appears that they do good conservation work and it was easy to kill 2 or 3 hours there.
Came here as well on our previous cruise and it was one of our favourite stops on that cruise and it was again on this one. Nice island that doesn’t feel too crowded like some islands do and a good mix of city and countryside. Did the stingray swim and snorkel. Starts with a 45 or so minute drive across the island with the driver providing facts and history. About 45 minutes in the water as the stingrays swim around you. These are free range wild stingrays that come because they know they’re getting fed. You get the feeling that the people running this business do genuinely care about the stingrays and aren’t just exploiting them for profit.
Another nice island but this one seemed to lack any wow factor for me. Nothing really stood out as being super special to differentiate between this and any other island. Did the Welchman Hall Gully and beach break. The gully is a nice trail through the rainforest. Fairly easy trail with some stairs. If you like nature this is a great place to check out. Beach break was about an hour and a half which did allow us to see the sunset but felt a bit longer than was needed. Especially since we ended up getting back to the ship within half an hour of all aboard time and most of the ships in the port area had already closed.
A great island to visit but I sure wouldn’t want to ever have to drive on their roads. Did the Soufriere and Diamond Falls excursion. Long drive up and down and up and down and up and down across the island. Saw cities, fishing villages, farmland, rainforest, mountains, ocean and I’m sure more. Diamond Falls was at the Botanical Gardens so once again a nice, flat walk through the natural environment. Tour guide was great and he filled most of the three or four hours of driving time with all sorts of history and facts about the island.
Very nice island with a good mix of natural beauty and civilization. A great sail in as you go along the full length of the island before getting to port. Did the 4x4 safari and beach break. Don’t really go that far off the beaten path with the 4x4 but you get to see some excellent views and a bit of the island along the way. A couple stops had pushy monkey guys that pretty much would throw monkeys on you if you wanted them or not and then expected you to pay for that. An hour at the beach to finish felt like just the right amount of time.
Came here on our previous cruise and it was one of our favourite ports. Unfortunately we never really had any chance of making it here on time and our 4pm arrival became a 7pm arrival. Not really the city’s fault but those couple of hours of daylight would have given us a lot more to do.
This ended up being quick but was very sloppy. They had exits set up both forward and aft but were directing everyone to line up in a single line to exit forward. Then, just moments after an announcement that they were still waiting clearance crew was telling us that people were being let off through the aft exit. So all the people who had just joined the back of the line were now suddenly at the front of the line and got off before people who had lined up half an hour or more earlier. Was still off the ship, through customs, and walking past the ship on the way to the parking lot when we could hear the announcement that they had just been cleared to disembark.
I wish more reviews were like this. I appreciate the detail. As someone who is about to go on his first cruise I can say that your review has great info.
I really enjoyed reading your detailed review! Very well written. So glad you had a positive experience! Looking forward to our trip on the Getaway in March ⚓🌴
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