MINIBAR SCAM - water bottles BEWARE
Norwegian Getaway Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Deck Hand
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 4
5 Night Caribbean: Great Stirrup Cay & Cozumel (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 26, 2023
Ship: Norwegian Getaway
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 5105
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
We spent most of our cruise in line with Guest Services. The first time we played their BINGO GAME for for approximately $150 on the last game the power went off. So we had to wait in line to complain about that. They did refund our money minus some bingo. Then we had the dining experience and we had to wait till the last day of our cruise to use it due to the ridiculous amount of people they have on board. Honestly, it actually was a good experience. It was called the Ocean Blue. We had other issues we complained about due to weather and spent a lot of money to go to their private island And we’re diverted to the Bahamas Nassau instead along with FIVE other cruise ships in port which was awful with all the people in port at the same time. So we just stayed on the boat fun, fun….The $600 we spent on excursions was refunded so we didn’t get to experience any of that on their private island which I was told happens frequently.(Stirup Caye) It’s the island where you swim with pigs. Our room serve was upsetting as well. The top sheet was never put on the bed. I think they know regardless what they do we’re paying $20 a piece per day. Which I complained about that as well. They usually make animals out of towels, etc. Nothing special whatsoever. The room was very hot and ac was intermittent. The part that really got me is when we got to the room there were two bottles of water. One was spring water and the other sparkling water. I said wow they gave us free water. After looking further the top of the bottle had a note stating they were $6.50 each. One was empty. We put them back and never thought of it again. The morning we were checking out off the boat, the line was ridiculous and we noticed they had room a charge for both waters. Again, the line was ridiculous so I said to heck with it. Then a few days later we got a final bill and they added two more bottles of water (I don’t even drink sparkling water) and then I wondered HOW MANY PEOPLE THEY DO THIS TO?????? It was a total of $31.20 for four bottles of water. OM goodness! As we were getting in line we saw our room attendant and she didn’t speak English well, she was Hispanic and told her we did NOT drink any water. After receiving our final bill, I complained to corporate and they stated I should have complained to guest services before getting off the boat. Which was ridiculous at 7am. They routed us around in a line with our luggage like mice in a cage for what seemed like forever . This extra charge for two more bottles of water was added after disembarking the boat and not on the original bill we received. I’m just curious how many people they do this to with Water it adds up I’m sure with millions of people that travel ridiculous upsetting and I’m disputing with my bank and still having a hard time Norwegian are crooks. Beware of their water scam!!!Embarkation
Smooth
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Way too many passengers!
Wasabi
It was a long wait and definitely what we expected. The service was great but the food was awful.
Onboard Activities
Bingo, no power went out, had to wait in line for refund. We spent a lot of time waiting in line for recunds due to no fault of our own
Entertainment
Could have been much better.
Service and Staff
The bartenders were great! The rest of staff did not go above and beyond.
Ship Quality
Yes
Cabin / Stateroom
Overall it was clean. The cleaning staff forgot our top sheet and was the person responsible for charging us for the water we NEVER drank!! I’m so upset over this because she knows we didn’t drink any of their water and I refuse to pay $31.60 for 4 bottles of water. Egrrrr!
Ship tip
Get the drink package. Bring patience as their are way too many people.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We were only there for a few hours. We came a long way to stay for a few hours. They canceled the me the next day at Stirup Caye due to weather. We should have stayed in Cozumel, Mexico linger than detouring to Nassau, Bahamas instead. There were 5 other ships docket at Massau that Sunday. Way, way too many people. Got off the boat, which was a mistake!! Wall to wall people. Got back on boat and wasn’t able to do any excursions. We did get our money back for excursions but did absolutely nothing taking the wow out of our vacation. I understand the weather and that it was windy and rather than going to the Bahamas we should have stayed in Mexico. I was told that they hardly ever go to the Island that they always have an excuse
Disembarkation
They line you up like mules in a line going around in circles. They shut elevators off.
17 Comments
hunny68 1 year ago
NCL needs to build a dock or scrap that private island. We've never been able to go there because of the weather. Second, I was on the Getaway in April and we had the same disembarking problem. They shut the elevators down and they closed off the stairs so everyone was completely jammed on one deck but they kept calling more luggage tags to disembark. It was a disaster and the most poorly run process I've encountered. Third, school wouldn't have been out at that time of the year so whoever made the comment about the ship being crowded because of that obviously didn't bother to read when you cruised. And finally, the Getaway is not built to properly handle the number of guests it can hold. It's poorly laid out and the venues are too small for the number of guests on board.
CruisedudeNY65 1 year ago
Sorry for some of these replies. I was on my 9th cruise that was terrible. I was told maybe cruising wasn't for me. Corporate did refund me money back and apologized profusely. Ncl isn't operating as they did pre shutdown and it's not a good look on them. Sorry you were over charged and maybe cruising IS for you
enjoyurdaysmile 1 year ago
@banaford you are so correct that people don't realize that a ship cannot stay at a port Pastor time and the captain or whoever is waiting for people who are peer Runners that are running late they have to leave at a certain time to go from one port to the next. I've Cruise many times and we have seen peer runners and they don't set their watch to ship time or they don't look at the time on their cell phone. I always wear a second hand watch because I like it.
My husband and I took Norwegian Getaway in March and we could not go to the Private Island but our next part was Nassau so we had five sea days instead of four.
enjoyurdaysmile 1 year ago
People don't understand that you only have a certain time at a port. You have to get from one port to the next at a certain time they're not going to stay in Mexico longer. People are on the expression to the ship and people take excursions that are private so it doesn't matter if they stay in Mexico for 4 to 5 hours people have to get back to the ship a half an hour or a little more if they want to before the ship departs so with that we have to go by the ship's rules and the cruise line. People want a lot but it doesn't always work out like that I've Cruise many times and we choose excursions with the ship that is a lot of hours so we have time to do the things that we want. I'm sorry I'm writing a lot I'm an avid Cruiser I know what to expect and if a ship has to miss apart it's for a reason.
On our last sailing we were supposed to go to Virginia Beach and Bermuda that was scratched also we were supposed to stay overnight in Port Canaveral that was scratched so my husband and I went to the Brevard Zoo and he made arrangements online way before the cruise and rented a car obviously before the cruise. We had a wonderful time and going to the parks is just not worth it because it's a lot of money and you had to be back at the transfer bus at 4:00. All aboard was 8:30 and the ship was leaving at 9:00.
My next cruise is not with Norwegian it's with Liberty of the Seas and we are taking the New England and Canada run which I am very happy about and I hope that we get to go to each port. We all want this and people say it's disappointing but there's nothing we can do about things if it's out of our hands.
enjoyurdaysmile 1 year ago
I remember taking the elevator on disembarkation day when I was on the getaway also they have to have elevators for people who cannot walk down the stairs and people take their luggages when it's a walk off by themselves nobody could walk down a lot of decks with a luggage if they're on a higher deck
enjoyurdaysmile 1 year ago
One, the cruise line never calls a ship a boat. . I know what you meant but the ship is different from a boat. Many times the ship cannot go to the private islands due to weather because they have to Tender and when we took Norwegian Getaway that happened to us and they refunded the money for that. As far as towel animals, you can request them. When I was on the Norwegian Escape the cruise director did mention that they are not making towels anymore and you can request them this wasn't 2019 I am sure they stopped it before that. I got one towel animal that my stateroom attendant made for us on this past sailing in March and I was very appreciative of that. Cruising is not all about the towel animals as you know. Things happen on ships cruise lines and anything else and if the captain feels that they cannot go to a port, they will not. The ship went to the Bahamas and in fact Norwegian Cruise Line is a Flagship for that country. On our sailing Nassau was part of our itinerary and yes there were a lot of ships five more were there. It is very crowded so expect that and we do get off the ship because I'm not staying on the ship because I go to places to have fun and walk around and excursions are very nice. We did the Excursion called Discover Nassau Land by sea and we had a great time and although we did it in the past, it was something to do. A lot of people have been to Nassau many
times and they just stay on the ship but there's really not much to do so they go to the pool. The casino and stores are closed on the ship because they are in port.
I hope the next selling you take if you go you'll have a good experience.